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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Mar;89(4):733-737.
doi: 10.1038/s41390-020-1015-2. Epub 2020 Jun 17.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children and/or adolescents: a meta-analysis

Alessandro Mantovani  1 , Elisabetta Rinaldi  2 , Chiara Zusi  2   3 , Giorgia Beatrice  2 , Marco Deganello Saccomani  4 , Andrea Dalbeni  5
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children and/or adolescents: a meta-analysis

Alessandro Mantovani et al. Pediatr Res. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Background: To assess the overall prevalence of clinical signs, symptoms, and radiological findings in children and/or adolescents with COVID-19.

Methods: We systematically researched in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases observational studies describing COVID-19 in children and/or adolescents until April 11, 2020. Data regarding clinical and radiological features were extracted from eligible studies and meta-analysis was performed using random-effects modeling.

Results: We examined 19 eligible studies for a total of 2855 children and/or adolescents with COVID-19. Approximately 47% of subjects had fever (95% confidence interval [CI] 22-72%; I2 = 98.6%), 37% cough (95%CI 15-63%; I2 = 98.6%), 4% diarrhea (95%CI 0-12%; I2 = 92.2%), 2% nasal congestion (95%CI 0-7%; I2 = 87.7%), 1% dyspnea (95%CI 0-7%; I2 = 91.5%) and 0% abdominal pain (95%CI 0-1%; I2 = 76.3%). Subjects presented mild symptoms in 79% (95%CI 65-91%; I2 = 93.5%) of cases, whereas only 4% (95%CI 1-9%; I2 = 76.4%) were critical. Among those with pneumonia on computed tomography, 26.4% (95%CI 13-41%; I2 = 80.8%) presented a unilateral involvement, 16% (95%CI 5-29%, I2 = 81.2%) had bilateral involvement and 9% (95%CI 0-24%; I2 = 88.7%) had interstitial pneumonia.

Conclusions: Children and/or adolescents tend to have a mild COVID-19 course with a good prognosis.

Impact: Compared to adults, children and/or adolescents tend to have a mild COVID-19 course with a good prognosis. This study provides new and consistence information on the clinical and radiological characteristics of COVID-19 in pediatrics. This study may help to fight COVID-19 in pediatric population.

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References

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